Westfield Century City’s Extensive Groundwater Repurposing Project Saves 12 Million Gallons of Water Previously Wasted
LABBC CASE STUDY
PROPERTY OWNER
Westfield Century City
PROPERTY TYPE
Commercial Building
SQUARE FEET
1.5 million
Sponsoring Organizations
1M Gal
Phase 1 Annual Water Reduction
12M Gal
Phase 2 Water Reduction
2020 Innovation Awards: Water Performance Project of the Year Finalist
“Taking water that is being ‘thrown down the drain,’ so to speak and repurposing the water to reduce the water being provided by the City, ultimately leaves more water for public use and for more critical needs.”
SEAN QUILES
Facilities Director, Westfield Century City
CHALLENGE
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield's (Westfield) “Better Places 2030” corporate sustainability initiative aims to reduce the company’s carbon footprint 50% by 2030, and water conservation is a significant factor in achieving this goal.
Westfield’s Century City property is situated on top of a natural spring and this water was being discharged to the sewer. Westfield wanted to explore how this water could be used onsite in their cooling tower to reduce their potable water consumption.
STRATEGY
Westfield approached this project by partnering with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) for funding assistance and the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) as a comprehensive technical resource. LABBC’s water technical advisor’s guidance informed a strategy for a comprehensive groundwater repurposing initiative, which included rerouting water from the natural spring under the property to the CUP cistern for the cooling towers, instead of discharging this water to the City sewer.
Westfield worked with LABBC from project scoping through execution for support on technical guidance and rebate applications for the Water Savings Incentive Program (WISP), and water conservation Technical Assistance Program (TAP).
Westfield’s senior leadership was also central to the project’s success, providing approval for the project and trusting in the expertise and knowledge of the onsite engineering team.
IMPACT
This project offset Century City’s water overall consumption by offsetting the twelve million gallons by utilizing groundwater and reducing total water consumption to sixty million gallons per year.
The project’s success exhibits the potential of re-thinking systems that are already in place to unlock solutions in efficiency.
